Medical Examiner Rules Death Of ‘Baby June,’ Infant Found Floating Off Florida Coast, A Homicide

The death of a newborn infant known only as Baby June is officially being investigated as a homicide, police said in a press conference on Monday.

An off-duty firefighter was the first to find the unidentified infant floating off the coast of the Boynton Beach Inlet in Florida on June 1, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The identity of the child and the events leading up to her death are still a mystery.

“The medical examiner’s rulings are this case is a homicide,” Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Captain Steven Strivelli said. No further details regarding the nature of Baby June’s death were provided, but police have previously theorized that Baby June, believed to have been 4 to 7 days old, was left in the water for 16 to 18 hours.

Multiple law enforcement agencies worked in tandem to check all babies born in Palm Beach and Broward counties within the age range of Baby June in what Strivelli described on Monday as a “massive undertaking,” but the effort yielded no results.

Authorities have received a total of 16 tips in relation to the case, Strivelli said, adding, “That’s not much for this case and none of those tips have led to anything for us in this case, and we are still desperate for anything we can get from the public.”

Genealogical testing has revealed that the child’s ancestry is 50 percent Central Asian and 50 percent African, Strivelli revealed during Monday’s conference. He called the results a “very unusual split,” as individuals with that specific mix are typically found in areas like Jamaica, Trinidad, or Barbados. Furthermore, authorities were not able to find any blood relatives of the child in their database, Strivelli said.

While there were no marks suggesting bruising on the child’s body, there was a prick on the baby’s heel and evidence that the umbilical cord had been clipped, suggesting that the child was born in a hospital or birthing center, Strivelli said.

“Some hospital, somewhere, has evidence of this child being born — we just haven’t found it yet,” he said.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office announced in June that it was offering a $10,000 reward to anyone with information leading to arrests in the case. That reward still stands, Strivelli confirmed.

Anyone with information regarding the Baby June case is encouraged to call the Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-800-458-TIPS, or the Special Victims Unit’s tip line at 561-688-4155.

[Photo: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office]